A shell-shocked Iraq War veteran and the wife who suffered with him as he struggled to become reacquainted with the world have shared their heart breaking tale of hope, pain, and forgiveness.

Candace Desmond-Woods and Tom Woods met after Tom’s first tour in Iraq, fell in love via Skype and letters during his second, and then married when he finally returned.

But when the demons of war began to drag the 34-year-old Woods almost immediately, they threatened to destroy his new wife and family along with him.

Broken: Candy Desmond-Woods comforts her husband Tom, an Iraq veteran who came home with debilitating PTSD and a serious alcohol problem

A Los Angeles Times staff writer and a staff photographer followed the Irvine family for a year and a half starting in March 2012.

The heart breaking story is told perfectly through a vivid series of photographs that illustrate almost too perfectly how the horrors of war follow so many of our soldiers home.

By the time Candy met Tom, he was already drinking heavily.

The mother of two was able to ignore the habit, at least at first, and chalk it up to good old boy Army behavior.

'I don't know what it feels like to be happy anymore': Tom experienced horrors in Iraq and returned too broken for even his perfect match marriage to Candy to fix

Wrenching: Woods, a veteran of two tours in Iraq Army, visits a memorial at Northwood Community Park in Irvine. He wept as he saw the names of comrades whose bodies he carried and as he imbibed to dull the pain

Jailed: Tom's drinking quickly got him into trouble. Here, Candy visits Tom with their son as he sat in jail awaiting a hearing about his third DUI

Last ditch effort: A judge gave Tom a bittersweet reprieve--he would avoid jail but had to got to an intensive, indefinite, last-ditch rehab designed to keep vets like him out of prison

Like Woods himself, Candy was able to attribute his whiskey and beer habit to his need to forget the terrible thigns he’d seen during his 14 months in roadside bomb-laden Baghdad in 2007 to 2008 during the surge.

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The two got married in the spring of 2011 when Candy was seven months pregnant with their son Blake. Tom would become the father to Candy’s two daughters from a previous marriage, as well.

‘I found the perfect man,’ she would remember thinking, ‘and we'll have this great life.’

But Tom continued to drink heavily and even drunkenly dropped their newborn baby, causing him a concussion.

Apart: For over a year, Candy and her three kids lived without Tom and weren't allowed to even speak to him on the phone

Broke: Reporters followed Candy as she went to a pawn shop in a desperate bid to make some fast cash while Tom was in rehab

Tom was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He’d carried dead comrades, cleaned blood and gore off the dashes of bombed Humvees, and piled slaughtered dogs he and his fellow soldiers killed in order to keep their cover, among other horrors. And it was starting to show.

Tom quickly got two DUIs. Candy took away his car keys and booze, but it didn’t help.

‘I don't know what it feels like to be happy anymore,’ he said. ‘I don't know what it feels like to be healthy anymore.’

He soon got a third DUI and feared being thrown in jail for good.

Candy, despite mounting worries, stuck by him.

‘Why,’ he wondered.

‘Because I know who you really are,’ she said. ‘I know you're gonna be OK. OK?’

Tom
went to jail, but only briefly. A sympathetic judge sent him to an
intensive, indefinite, last-ditch rehab program designed to keep
soldiers like him out of prison.

Candy knew it was for the best.

Hopeful: Candy's daughter from her first marriage Lizzy does her mom's makeup ahead of her reunion with Tom after a year apart

Homecoming: Candy's other daughter Addy Desmond, 8, holds up a hand-made sign as she awaits the arrival of her stepfather in May after he was away from the family in rehab for a full year

Reunited: Candy swoops in to hug Tom after a year apart. The reporters left them after the hopeful reunion, but their struggles to stay a step ahead of Tom's demons undoubtedly persist

‘If you want to stay married, if you want to stay in contact with your son, if you want to stay out of jail, this is your option,’ she said. ‘I love you, but enough.’

For the next year, Candy was unable to speak even a word to Tom. She struggled desperately to make ends meet on her own and was in a constant battle with the VA to receive Tom’s veteran’s benefits.

She also struggled with fears that Tom wouldn’t be fixed when he came back.

‘I'm not giving him a third chance. I will not hesitate. I will be gone. This is not going to be the rest of my life,’ she said. ‘He already got more than anyone else would have gotten in my book, so that's his chance.’

But her tone changed when Tom was released from rehabbed after over a year.

‘I feel like he's normal, he's OK, that he can come here and be OK,’ she gushed as Tom pulled up to their home, which was covered in welcome home signs.

The reporters no longer followed the couple after their reunion, but their struggles to stay a step ahead of Tom’s demons and to live a normal life no doubt continue.